John Benjamins Publishing Company
On grammatical gender as an arbitrary and redundant category
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Marcin Kilarski
Abstract
In this paper I give an overview of tendencies in the research on grammatical gender within the Western linguistic tradition. More specifically, I focus on the recurring claims concerning the supposed semantic arbitrariness, and formal and non-functional character of this category. Representative examples are given from every period of linguistic activity, from the ancient Greek scholars up to contemporary descriptive and typological studies. Particular attention is given to the most influential works, e.g. those of the Neogrammarians and European as well as American structuralists within 19th and 20th century scholarship. While examples have been drawn mainly from the research on Indo-European, the tendencies described are also indicative of the research on other families and on systems traditionally referred to as “noun classes”. Finally, I consider these claims in the light of the evidence that is now available of the semantic regularity of gender, its discourse functions and cognitive correlates.
Abstract
In this paper I give an overview of tendencies in the research on grammatical gender within the Western linguistic tradition. More specifically, I focus on the recurring claims concerning the supposed semantic arbitrariness, and formal and non-functional character of this category. Representative examples are given from every period of linguistic activity, from the ancient Greek scholars up to contemporary descriptive and typological studies. Particular attention is given to the most influential works, e.g. those of the Neogrammarians and European as well as American structuralists within 19th and 20th century scholarship. While examples have been drawn mainly from the research on Indo-European, the tendencies described are also indicative of the research on other families and on systems traditionally referred to as “noun classes”. Finally, I consider these claims in the light of the evidence that is now available of the semantic regularity of gender, its discourse functions and cognitive correlates.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements ix
- The natural: Its meanings and functions in the history of linguistic thought 1
- On grammatical gender as an arbitrary and redundant category 24
- Penser l'espace, penser l'espèce: Modélisation des affinités linguistiques 37
- On the origins of the participle as a part of speech 50
- Grammar as a liberal art in antiquity 67
- Priscian's pedagogy: A critique of the Institutio de nomine et pronomine et verbo 80
- L'horizon de retrospection du Mithridate de Conrad Gessner (1555) 89
- Montaigne's view of skepticism and language in the Essais 103
- Competing models for a 17th century universal language: A study of the dispute between George Dalgarno and John Wilkins 112
- La notion d'unité sonore dans les grammaires françaises des 17ème et 18ème siècles 120
- Une "Grammaire générale et raisonnée" en 1651 (1635?): Description et intérpretation d'une découverte empirique 131
- 'Analogy': The history of a concept and a term from the 17th to the 19th century 156
- Une écriture de l'histoire: La Lettre à M. Pinglin sur l'histoire de la science grammaticale 169
- Quels facteurs (linguistiques ou historiques) considérer dans l'accord en français? Étude de certains cas dans le Journal de la langue française (1784) d'Urbain Domergue 183
- Nicolas Beauzée: La clé inexploitée de la phonétique française 197
- Colonialism, scientific expeditions and linguistics in 19th century Brazil 212
- The concept of civilization in historic Brazilian linguistics 228
- The European linguistic tradition and early missionary grammars in Central and South America 236
- Steinthal and the limits of etymology: The special case of Chinese 252
- An epistemological assessment of the Neogrammarian movement 262
- Privileged languages and others in the history of historical-comparative linguistics 274
- The nationalist turn: Dutch linguistics and German philosophy in the 18th and early 19th centuries 288
- Représentations de l'autre: L'italien et les Italiens dans quelques dictionnaires bilingues des XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles 308
- L'utile et l'agréable dans les méthodes familières et autres ouvrages utilisés pour l'apprentissage du français aux Pays-Bas (XVIIIe-XIXe siècles) 321
- La reformulation dans la lexicographie des XVIe-XIXe siècles: L'emergence de la syntaxe française 333
- Words and concepts for child language learning in late 19th versus late 20th century America 344
- La lexicologie, un savoir scolarisable? 356
- Aspects de la linguistique prescriptive: Les perceptions des vocabulaires de specialité à travers des dictionnaires français (XIXe et XXe s.) 372
- Semantique et analogie dans la tradition grammaticale arabe: La valeur des formes verbales 386
- Meaning by collocation: The Firthian filiation of corpus linguistics 404
- Kristeva on the encyclopedists: Linguistics, semanalysis, and the epistemology of Enlightenment science 416
- La preuve de Gaifman: Réflexions sur la méthode de construction des grammaires catégorielles 432
- Name index 441
- Subject index 447
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements ix
- The natural: Its meanings and functions in the history of linguistic thought 1
- On grammatical gender as an arbitrary and redundant category 24
- Penser l'espace, penser l'espèce: Modélisation des affinités linguistiques 37
- On the origins of the participle as a part of speech 50
- Grammar as a liberal art in antiquity 67
- Priscian's pedagogy: A critique of the Institutio de nomine et pronomine et verbo 80
- L'horizon de retrospection du Mithridate de Conrad Gessner (1555) 89
- Montaigne's view of skepticism and language in the Essais 103
- Competing models for a 17th century universal language: A study of the dispute between George Dalgarno and John Wilkins 112
- La notion d'unité sonore dans les grammaires françaises des 17ème et 18ème siècles 120
- Une "Grammaire générale et raisonnée" en 1651 (1635?): Description et intérpretation d'une découverte empirique 131
- 'Analogy': The history of a concept and a term from the 17th to the 19th century 156
- Une écriture de l'histoire: La Lettre à M. Pinglin sur l'histoire de la science grammaticale 169
- Quels facteurs (linguistiques ou historiques) considérer dans l'accord en français? Étude de certains cas dans le Journal de la langue française (1784) d'Urbain Domergue 183
- Nicolas Beauzée: La clé inexploitée de la phonétique française 197
- Colonialism, scientific expeditions and linguistics in 19th century Brazil 212
- The concept of civilization in historic Brazilian linguistics 228
- The European linguistic tradition and early missionary grammars in Central and South America 236
- Steinthal and the limits of etymology: The special case of Chinese 252
- An epistemological assessment of the Neogrammarian movement 262
- Privileged languages and others in the history of historical-comparative linguistics 274
- The nationalist turn: Dutch linguistics and German philosophy in the 18th and early 19th centuries 288
- Représentations de l'autre: L'italien et les Italiens dans quelques dictionnaires bilingues des XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles 308
- L'utile et l'agréable dans les méthodes familières et autres ouvrages utilisés pour l'apprentissage du français aux Pays-Bas (XVIIIe-XIXe siècles) 321
- La reformulation dans la lexicographie des XVIe-XIXe siècles: L'emergence de la syntaxe française 333
- Words and concepts for child language learning in late 19th versus late 20th century America 344
- La lexicologie, un savoir scolarisable? 356
- Aspects de la linguistique prescriptive: Les perceptions des vocabulaires de specialité à travers des dictionnaires français (XIXe et XXe s.) 372
- Semantique et analogie dans la tradition grammaticale arabe: La valeur des formes verbales 386
- Meaning by collocation: The Firthian filiation of corpus linguistics 404
- Kristeva on the encyclopedists: Linguistics, semanalysis, and the epistemology of Enlightenment science 416
- La preuve de Gaifman: Réflexions sur la méthode de construction des grammaires catégorielles 432
- Name index 441
- Subject index 447
